A Texas House bill presented by Dallas Rep. Jason Villalba would allow law enforcement officials to charge people who are not members of the media with a Class B misdemeanor if they record police officers while on duty.

House bill 2918 stipulates that people who are not part of a news organization -- which the bill states as people who work for a “radio, television station, newspaper or magazine” -- would be able to film officers only if they are 25 feet or more away from law enforcement. If someone who is not with the media is carrying a handgun, they would have to be 100 feet or more away to record, according to the bill.

Midland Police Chief Price Robinson and Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Elena Viramontes declined to comment on the pending legislation. The Reporter-Telegram was unable to reach Rep. Tom Craddick and Villalba by press time.

In a Twitter post from March 12, Villalba defended the legislation, stating that “HB 2918 is meant to protect officers, NOT restrict the ability to keep them accountable. It DOES NOT prohibit filming.” Above the post, Villalba had retweeted a “Blue Lives Matter” photo in reference to a statement of solidarity with police officers.

In an emailed statement to the Reporter-Telegram, Rebecca L. Robertson, legal and policy director of the ACLU of Texas, said that “Texans have a First Amendment right to record police officers in public places as they perform their duties. Many high-profile incidents of police abuse, like LAPD officers’ beating of Rodney King, would never have been exposed to public scrutiny but for the citizen journalists on the scene who dared to record conduct that they believed was wrong. HB 2918 would deprive us of an important check against abuse of power by the police.”

Midland County Sheriff Gary Painter said the only experience he has had with a citizen interfering in a crime scene by recording it was in the aftermath of the deadly train wreck during the Hunt for Heroes parade on Nov. 15, 2012. Four veterans were killed and 14 people were injured.

“We had one individual that was ignoring instructions of law enforcement and was interfering,” Painter said.

The sheriff said his main worry is that pictures of the deceased at a scene might be released before next of kin is notified.

“Our biggest fear is when we’re out at a scene -- say a traffic accident, a suicide, a homicide or a place someone is deceased -- is the news media or someone else taking pictures of the deceased and putting it on a public display, on TV or Facebook or whatever,” Painter said. “We don’t want that, and I don’t think anyone would want to find out about a deceased relative that way.”

The dividing line between average citizens and the media is less defined than Villalba hopes to make it, according to Donnis Baggett, Texas Press Association executive vice president.

“I think the underlying problem with (the legislation) here is that, for the most part, news media do not enjoy any privilege that the average Joe on the street doesn’t have,” he said in a phone interview from Austin. “To somehow draw a line between a newspaper photographer shooting a photo and some average citizen being able to shoot the same photo from a cellphone, that’s a pretty slippery slope.”

Baggett believes that the growth of citizen journalism has created a wealth of new information, photos and video available for news outlets that otherwise would not be documented. Legislation such as HB 2918, which Baggett does not believe has much support, would infringe on such information.

“Even if there is an attempt to protect the media’s First Amendment rights here, our rights are infringed upon somewhat just by lessening the amount of material that we can get from Joe Q. Citizen, who may be out there on the street corner watching this all go down,” Baggett said.

Both Painter and Baggett believe that the legislation, even if it was passed, would not stand up to a First Amendment challenge in court.

“I don’t think it’ll stand muster in a constitutional challenge if it is to affect the news media. I don’t think it will stand up. That’s my opinion,” Painter said.